Saturday, February 20, 2016

Shimmy

I'm a belly
dancer. No, I'm not a stripper. No, they didn't start off as harem girls
seducing the sultan. Think about it - the sultans didn't NEED seducing.

There are two main
avenues of belly dance – Traditional and American Tribal. Both of these paths
have different branches, but I'm traditional.

Several years ago,
my first belly dance teacher visited Egypt. She sat at the base of the Great
Pyramid and had a life changing experience. She studied and trained and
eventually began teaching – which is where I come in.

The saying is time marches forward – My teacher moved
300 miles away.

But – I switched
to training with my teacher's teacher. Every Monday, I drive an hour north for
class. Other than because of the worst weather a Canadian winter can throw at
us, I never miss class.

Do you needed to
be a skilled dancer to take belly dance? No.

Do you need to be
young? No. One class had a 74 yr old grandmother.

Do you need to be
thin? No. My original teacher was plus size and she was one of the most beautiful
dancers I've known.

There are no full
splits or sky high leaps. It's the tiny movements that are the complex ones. As
a beginner you learn a simple move, then you add another move on top and then
another. It's called layering. You learn to walk. Then you learn to shimmy.
Then you add your shimmy to your walk. Then add a chest lift. Next thing you
know, you've got five different thing going on while still moving with the
music. And --- you're loving every minute of it.

Another fabulous
thing about belly dancing is called ShimmyMob. It's a fund raising event in
support of Women's Shelters. It's a worldwide event that's held in May. There
are currently 156 countries registered this year.

Belly dance and
writing. I used a belly dancer in a short story I wrote for an anthology.
Christmas Knight in the Exquisite Christmas collection.

Doing any sort of
movement is good for a writer. We sit and sit and sit. Getting up and moving is
good for the body, the circulation and the creativity. Time away from the
computer lets the brain have down time, so you and your brain can get back to
work refreshed. And what better to way to get refreshed is by shimmying your
butt off.

Red Tulip excerpt

"When
was the last time you were offered the gift of a red tulip?"

I
turned to see who spoke while I wondered if he was addressing me. A man sat on
a park bench, dressed in a dark suit, with a bowler hat, holding a cane and his
head bowed. I shifted to continue along the path when his face lifted and I
found myself gaping at two glowing green eyes.

"When
was the last time you were offered the gift of a red tulip?"

I
blinked, trying to look away from those mesmerising orbs. "Uh, never. I
mean, no one has ever offered me a tulip."

"A
red tulip."

"Okay,
no one has ever offered me a red tulip." Uneasiness slithered through me.
"Nice chatting with you."

Smiling,
I scurried down the path leading away from the park bench and towards the
gardener's shed. With Jacobs being sick today, I had to hurry to get the last
of the flower beds cleaned and prepared for spring plantings. The past winter
had been bitter. It seemed tree branches and mouse damage wreaked havoc on every
one of the one hundred and sixteen different flowerbeds.

I
slipped my key into the lock, opened the shed door, stepped inside and shut it
behind me. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself a moment to indulge in the beauty
of his eyes. Emerald green. As brilliant as the gems locked among the diamonds
at Tiffany's. Not that I shop there. Couldn't possibly afford anything on a
junior gardener's salary, but I do fantasize when wandering the aisles.

What
would it be like to be with a man like that? For those few moments in his
presence, I was unable to think. My breath caught in my lungs. My palms were
slick with beads of sweat. I shook my head, opened my eyes, and tugged the
ever-present hair tie off my wrist. "Get over yourself, Darcy. A man like
that wants a super model who can slink around on eight-inch heels. Not someone
who digs in the dirt all day."

Blurb - Darcy O'Calahann, a junior
gardener from a small mid-western town, is trying to make her way in the big
city.

Shamus McTavis is a wealthy bachelor
with a mysterious family past.

Are Darcy's eyes playing tricks on her?
Is she losing her mind? Or is there really a Red Tulip tying her and Shamus
together?

I'm Victoria Adams. I live
in Ontario, Canada with my husband and pets. Daughter's grown up and is
now teaching. I like to garden, cook and study Raqs Sharqi (Egyptian belly
dance). In the summer, cars
slow down when they pass my front yard and the passengers gaze at my flower
beds. Friends love to be invited over for supper as the meal is going to be
good, good for you and nowhere near low-calorie! No dieting allowed at dinner
parties. As to belly dancing, find a class and try it. It's a blast!

I've been writing since I
was little. Being an only child, long car rides were filled with making up
stories in my head about the people I saw out the car window. Now, my writing style has
taken a split to contemporary romance for adults and contemporary romance for
new adults.